Split Screen: A feast of co-operation

Six months ago while reviewing the excellent Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, I complained that it represented a small, rare island of co-operative gameplay in a sea of competitive deathmatches and solitary single player.

It seems the gaming industry heard my complaint, because 2011 is turning into one of the best years ever for co-op. Even better, it is coming to us in a variety of flavours, so those who are bored with the running-around-and-shooting type of co-op in Gears of War can enjoy themselves too.

Hunted: The Demon's Forge will bring together blades and arrows in two-player co-operative mode.

A lot of 2011’s offerings in this category have already been released, with Portal 2 being one of the most prominent. Many fans wondered how well the co-op would work, and having spent several hours on it this week, I can say that it works very well indeed. Two players and four portals adds a whole new dimension to the puzzle possibilities, and the evil supercomputer GLaDOS is at her hilarious best trying to play the two hapless robots against each other.

Also out recently was Magicka, a strange and humorous take on isometric role-playing games like Diablo and Dungeon Siege. Up to four friends can join forces to spray ridiculous amounts of destructive magic all over many monster-filled levels. Magicka is unusually cruel, in that friendly fire is just as deadly as attacks on enemies, and some spell effects can have explosive results. Accidentally crossing magical streams with your friend and triggering a huge explosion that sends their bloody corpse flying off the screen is an experience not to be missed.

From full 3D to isometric view, we now go to traditional 2D gaming, with the gorgeous Outland. Released a few weeks ago on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, this is classic platforming in several ways, not least the extremely high degree of difficulty, and its colour-dependent game mechanics clearly inspired by Ikaruga. Outland co-op complex and difficult, and is not for the fainthearted.

The more traditional first-person shooters have also been well-represented in the co-op department so far in 2011. Killzone 3 came with the extremely welcome addition of split-screen, a feature that too many console developers skip over these days, preferring to throw all their hardware power at one viewpoint for maximum graphical quality.

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While the anarchic shooter Bulletstorm was originally designed with full campaign co-op in mind, Cliff Bleszinski told Eurogamer that it had to be taken out because it “broke the game”. Even so, the finished game did include the extremely enjoyable Anarchy mode, in which four players co-operate to juggle enemies and attain ridiculously high combo scores. It was a unique game style, chaotic and fun, much like the single player campaign, but multiplied by... well, four, I suppose.

We’re almost halfway through 2011 now, and looking ahead there is even more co-operative gaming goodness coming our way, including one of my most highly anticipated games of the year, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge. It sounded dull when I first heard about it, essentially Gears of War in fantasy costume, but the more details trickled out, the more interested I became. Hunted promises to combine a dedicated co-op campaign, designed for two players from the ground up, with witty writing, strong characters, and varied combat consisting of archery, swords, and magic. It is due out in Australia in early June.

One game that we have been waiting many years for was recently dogged by rumours that it would not be making its 2011 release window. Randy Pitchford of Gearbox Software has publically stated that the rumours are untrue, and Aliens: Colonial Marines will be released this year. One of the best features of this game’s four-player co-op will be double split-screen: four friends will be able to join forces on two game consoles. Again, it is promised to be a well-designed co-op experience. No solid release date has been set for Aliens: Colonial Marines, but I will be checking it out at E3 next month, so stay tuned for more details.

Of course, the Xbox 360’s juggernaut franchise Gears of War gets its third title late this year. Gears of War 3 is looking to be more of the same Gears action we’ve already enjoyed, and fans will agree that this is a very good thing. Gears has always been co-op focused, with two main characters always fighting alongside each other, even in single player, and an admirable dedication to split-screen. I have loved blasting through the first two games sitting beside friends on the couch, and I will be waiting for Gears 3 with great relish.

Finally, 2009’s indie RPG hit Torchlight will be making the jump to multiplayer, with the impending July release of Torchlight II. The original was a strangely lonely experience, fun and addictive certainly, but the lack of co-op was very noticeable. Developer Runic Games decided to skip the multiplayer in its first release and get the core gameplay right first. The sequel will add in the much-demanded co-op, with no news yet whether it will be capped at two, three, or four players. I can’t wait.

We really are in glut of quality co-operative play right now: I can’t talk about all of them without this article getting too long! A few more coming up in this year are Dead Island (four-player co-op survival horror), Call of Juarez: The Cartel (three-player co-op in a modern-day wild west setting), and rumours of single-player hit series Uncharted introducing split screen co-op in its third iteration, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.

Over to you, Screen Play readers. Which recent and upcoming co-op games have grabbed your interest? Let us know in the comments below.